Torchères with Mercury and Fortuna
19th century, after Giambologna(1529-1608)
Giambologna (1529-1608)
Giambologna (Jean de Boulougne) was born in 1529 in Douai, French Flandres, and got his training in Antwerp. He is considered to be one of the most important and influential sculptors in the manneristic style.
He was a great admirer of Michelangelo and moved to Italy in 1554, accompanied by his fellow artist Cornelis Floris. He spent the rest of his life mainly at the court of the Medici in Florence. In later times his work was often used as example and as material for lessons. A bronze Mercury, with a strong resemblance to the torchère on the left, is on display in the Louvre. The Queen-widow Marie de Médicis ordered Giambologna to make the huge bronze equestrian statue of the murdered Henry IV, erected between the two spans of the Pont Neuf. During the French Revolution, that statue was toppled, its bronze used to cast cannons. The present statue of Henry IV was erected in 1818 during the reign of Louis XVIII. It is casted from the bronze of the enormous nude statue of general Desaix, one of Napoleon’s generals that stood on the Place des Victoires, but whose nudity was considered offensive.